Unequal pricing for men and women provides a bittersweet lesson on the true difference between their wages
TORONTO – The true cost of the gender wage gap will be underlined in dollars and cents when representatives of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) set up the “Gender Pay Gap Bake Shop” at College and University tomorrow as part of activities to mark Equal Pay Day in Ontario.
The pop-up bake sale charges men one-third more than women for bakery items – a tongue-in-cheek reference to the continuing wage gap between male and female workers.
Ontario women earn roughly 70 per cent of what men do and it takes a woman in Ontario 15.5 months to earn what a man does in 12 – the reason that Equal Pay Day is held in April, three-and-a-half months into the new year.
“A majority of CUPE Ontario members are women, providing some of this province’s most critical public services, like child care, healthcare, social services and education. Yet because this type of front-line, caring work is mainly done by women, it has been undervalued and, by any fair measure, underpaid for years,” said CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. “The provincial government must take immediate action to close the gendered wage gap.”
Who: representatives of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
What: a pop-up gender pay gap bake sale, preceding a 12:30 p.m. rally to mark Equal Pay Day
When: Tuesday, April 19
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Where: intersection of College and University avenues, downtown Toronto
The gender pay gap bake sale takes place before the 12:30 p.m. Equal Pay Day gathering with speakers Mary Cornish, Chair of the Equal Pay Coalition; Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario; and Sharon DeSousa, VP of the Ontario Federation of Labour.
For more information, contact:
Barbara Wilker-Frey
Associate Coordinator
CUPE Social Services
647-236-2777
Mary Unan
CUPE Communications
647-390-9839
